


kindling

by jingi



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Camping, Established Relationship, M/M, Stars
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-12
Updated: 2016-09-12
Packaged: 2018-08-14 15:36:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,642
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8019505
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jingi/pseuds/jingi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jongin wants to go camping. There's a lot of rain and stars, but Jongdae ends up being pretty good at holding the umbrella.</p>
            </blockquote>





	kindling

**Author's Note:**

> warning: Fluff and Cheesiness Central   
> this is so random?? i meant to just write smth rly short and fluffy for myself and it ended being an actual oneshot i guess.. first complete thing i've finished in a long time? wahoo

A lot of people like to go camping for short vacations or long weekends. Jongdae didn’t think he’d be one of them. Jongin had suggested it though, and Jongdae didn’t think it was right to shoot him down when Jongdae had never even been camping himself. Especially when Jongin never really asked for anything specific besides occasional at-home anime marathons with fried chicken takeout.

So here Jongdae is singing along to Michael Jackson in the car, hoping he doesn’t get carsick as Jongin keeps driving up a windy road slowly climbing a mountain. Jongdae didn’t even realize there were landscapes like this within an hour from the city. The fresh air is great and the foliage, just starting to change colors as autumn kicks in, is really nice too, Jongdae admits. Still, he can’t but help feel a little uneasy because of the puffy dark grey clouds.

“Jongin-ah, do you remember what chance there is of it raining?”

Jongin glances up at the sky, and panic flashes across his face for a second. “I thought you were going to bring the umbrellas.”

Jongdae sighs. “I did. But I can’t do anything if it rains for hours.”

“Don’t get all mopey yet, hyung. Look, we’ve just gotten here and we haven’t even gotten out of the car yet!” As he says this, he turns the car into a parking lot that’s more empty than full. Jongdae watches as Jongin gets out of the car and opens the trunk to retrieve all the stuff they’ll need. He’s not bouncing around, but Jongdae can tell from Jongin’s twitchy half-grin and then his whistling that the younger man is trying (a bit unsuccessfully) to hide his excitement.

Finally having reconciled with his almost-carsick stomach, Jongdae opens the car door and joins Jongin, poking him in the cheek to interrupt his whistling. “You’re really in this good of a mood?”

“Yeah.” Jongin turns his head and aims to bite Jongdae’s finger, but Jongdae pulls away too quickly for him. “Oh, by the way, you should go use the bathroom now. I’ll go when you’re done so you can watch the stuff.”

“Okay,” Jongdae says, stepping away, but then he turns back. “Why now, though? Aren’t we going to be on those campsites right there?” He points to the little fields just beyond the little cabin that holds the bathrooms as well as a small general store. A few tents are set up there already.

“I know a better place!” Jongin says, beaming a little wider. “It’s a little farther, though, so we won’t be able to access this area as easily.”

“Oh. Okay then.” As he trudges towards the only sign of civilization visible within a range that’s who knows how big, Jongdae hopes ‘a little farther’ isn’t unbearable. It’s not that he doesn’t trust Jongin. He just hopes this trip isn’t too ambitious for him as a first-timer.

# 

Around half an hour of hiking later, Jongdae has had a lot of time to admire the smatterings of yellow and red leaves among the sea of green, but he’s also had a good amount of time to curse himself for packing all the food they’d be eating in glass containers. They were small, but the number of them and the capacity to which Jongdae had filled them with various panchan meant that Jongdae’s back was aching from the weight. He’s just able to keep up with Jongin but makes sure to wipe away the sweat on his forehead often so Jongin doesn’t see it when he looks back at Jongdae.

“Jongin-ah, have you had any water yet?” 

Jongin stops and turns around, waiting for Jongdae to catch up a few steps. “Not yet.” He goes behind Jongdae to start rummaging through his backpack. “Did you put the bottles at the top of the bag?”

“They’re at the side,” Jongdae answers, reaching behind him to guide Jongin’s hands to the right pockets. “Why don’t you get the ones from your bag?”

“This is easier. Aha!” Jongin opens the bottle he just found and gulps a third of it down. “And this way your bag will be lighter and it won’t be so hard for you to keep up, old man.”

“Be quiet and respect your elders,” Jongdae mutters. “And you could have just made your own bag lighter. Aren’t you the one carrying the tent?”

“Yeah, yeah. You should have told me if you wanted to slow down,” Jongin says, sounding a little apologetic. He grabs Jongdae’s hand and swings their arms like they’re little kids, beaming. “Let’s walk together then.”

Jongdae rolls his eyes but doesn’t protest even though his hand’s a little sweaty. 

They walk for maybe five more minutes when the clouds rumble and sure enough, it starts to drizzle. Jongin looks over at Jongdae, half a pout forming as he silently begs Jongdae not to nag him for wanting to camp on a rainy weekend. Then he says, “Hyung, if you sing now, we could be singing in the rain.”

“Shut up,” Jongdae snorts. “The campsite can’t be much further, right? Let’s hurry up.” As he says this, a crash resounds from the sky and the rain pours down much harder all of a sudden. 

“Jongin, the umbrellas!” Jongdae pulls his hood over his head and pulls Jongin’s too when he turns to unzip Jongdae’s bag again. They’re both already fairly drenched when Jongin pulls the umbrellas out and it almost seems pointless to open them, but it’s probably a good idea to keep the rain from flying into their faces as much as possible. 

By now, Jongdae is really wondering why they’re putting in all this effort to go “a little farther” than the place near where they parked. But dampening the mood (pun intended) any further won’t be of any help now.

“Let’s go,” Jongdae says determinedly, more to himself than to Jongin, and starts walking briskly ahead of Jongin. He makes it a good 50 feet before his foot gets stuck in a particularly wet patch of mud and he falls over before he fully realizes what’s happened.

“AAAAH!” He screams too late. Jongin manages to rush over to him without slipping in the mud at all. Totally unfair.

“Are you okay? This is why you should exercise more,” Jongin pretends to sigh, but he’s doing a poor job at hiding his laugh.

“Says the guy who spends more time watching sports anime than actually exercising,” Jongdae scoffs.

“Like you don’t ever watch it with me.” Jongin holds onto Jongdae’s arms and helps pull him up, but the mud is really sticky and really hates Jongdae for some reason because it still won’t relent its hold on one of his feet. Jongdae ends up halfway falling again, this time holding onto Jongin but twisting his ankle in a different way that actually hurts. He swears under his breath.

“All right, that’s enough,” Jongin declares. “Don’t move,” he commands to Jongdae, and Jongin leans down to carefully wiggle Jongdae’s trapped foot out of the mud. Even that hurts a bit, and Jongdae tries not to wince in pain. 

“Take off your backpack and hold it in the front,” Jongin says. Jongdae does, and before he can think of what’s next, Jongin scoops him up and continues walking like he’s not carrying Jongdae bridal style.

“HEY!” Jongdae yells, hitting Jongin’s arm.

“You can’t keep getting stuck in the mud for another hour and end up twisting the rest of your limbs,” Jongin says matter-of-factly. “And sorry, this is much easier than carrying you piggyback, if that’s what you wanted.”

“Piggyback?” Jongdae grumbles, pretending to be more ruffled than he really is. Honestly, it’s nice not walking on his ankle, whatever state it’s in now, and he still doesn’t know how far they have to go. All he has to do is hold an umbrella over both of them and admire Jongin’s face up close as he bobs up and down in Jongin’s arms.

Jongin notices him staring and looks back at him. “Is there something you wish to know from me, Your Highness?” he asks. Jongdae pulls himself up a little and kisses Jongin, laughing when he pulls away and sees the surprise on Jongin’s face.

“That was for your stupid joke earlier. I won’t sing in the rain for you, but I can kiss you in the rain. Is that good enough for you and your cheesy clichés?”

“Mm.” Jongin kisses him on the cheek in response. “I’m honored, Your Highness. And we’ve arrived.”

#

It’s the kind of place that’s not particularly remarkable -- there are probably thousands of other clearings within forests like this in the world -- but for what it is, it’s pretty. They’re in a clearing not too far from the trail, the mostly untrampled grass interrupted with occasional smatterings of medium-sized trees; it looks as if someone once tried to clear the whole area but gave up before finishing, and now nature’s growing back. If you stand in certain spots and look up, the silhouettes of the trees make a vignette around the part of the sky you can see. It’s a postcard shot that might not sell fantastically to the public, but it could look lovely on a wall of memories.

Jongin sets Jongdae down under a tree that he can sit on the roots of and lean against, and then Jongin sits down next to him.

“Since it’s still raining, I guess we have no choice but to sit here until it slows down,” Jongin says. “Even though most of the stuff is at least somewhat waterproof… it’s no fun setting up in a downpour.”

“Stop pouting,” Jongdae says teasingly, poking Jongin in the cheek again. “It’s not your fault it’s raining.”

“Why are you in such a good mood?” 

“God, yeah, it’s so terrible sitting down and sharing an umbrella with my boyfriend. Life sucks.” Jongdae rolls his eyes.

Jongin rests his head on Jongdae’s shoulder, snuggling a little closer. He’s still shy sometimes when Jongdae mentions the B word explicitly. “You know what I mean. You didn’t even want to go camping that much and you ended up getting hurt.”

Jongdae strokes Jongin’s hair lightly, combing through the dampness with his fingers. “It’s really not your fault, Jongin. And I wanted to come. Things just happen.”

“You’re too nice. If Baekhyun were here, I wouldn’t be able to sleep because he’d be complaining for hours.”

“Okay, now I’m not in such a good mood. Why’d you have to bring up Baekhyun?”

Jongin snorts and ends up shaking Jongdae’s shoulder a bit. “Because I knew you’d say something like that to make me laugh,” he mumbles, and Jongdae’s not sure if he’s supposed to hear all of it. He just continues stroking Jongin’s hair until (unsurprisingly) Jongin drifts off into a light doze. The downpour shifts to a lighter pitter-patter, and Jongdae lets Jongin nap for a little longer as he breathes in the scent of the rain coming to an end.

#

Luckily, they don’t have too much stuff, so they managed to finish setting up before the sun sets all the way. Jongdae is proud and relieved that he had packed the containers of food tightly enough that nothing had spilled. They sit on the tarp they’d laid over the wet grass and eat, enjoying a comfortable silence accompanied by the clink of chopsticks and the crunch of lettuce. Even when the meat is cold, there’s something pleasantly different about eating samgyeopsal in ssam while watching the glow of the sky fade from orange and pink to a pale horizon and a deepening blue-black.

When they’re almost done eating, Jongdae thinks of something. “Not that I don’t like it here, but if we had stayed at the normal campsite we could have used the fire pits to make s’mores. Why’d you pass up that opportunity?”

“Because I wanted to make sure it was just us and that no one would disturb us.” Jongin’s giving him one of those looks where his eyes are like two round moons and it’s one of those times when he says something serious so suddenly that there’s no mistaking the genuine feeling behind it. 

Jongdae looks back at Jongin and tries not to think about that unsettling feeling he has sometimes -- that Jongin’s love is so much sometimes and that Jongdae doesn’t deserve this much pure goodness. “You’re the dorkiest romantic, you know that?” he says quietly, but it’s not totally a joke.

Jongin props his chin up on one of his hands. “But I haven’t even said anything about how there are so many stars out and you’re more beautiful than all of them still, or that your eyes shine brighter than the moon, or that you’re the constellation lighting up my night sky.” He’s using that voice where he’s trying to sound like he’s joking casually but he still means what he’s saying. Jongdae can tell.

“You have more cheesy phrases than the amount of stars in the sky here, don’t you,” Jongdae mumbles. Jongin still knows how to make him blush every time.

“Just wait until the stars actually come out,” Jongin says, grinning. 

#

Since it rained, the night is a bit cooler than what it’s been like recently, even in the mountains. Jongin has a few blankets that are thin but made of some material that insulates heat well, and Jongdae is comfier than he thought he’d be even though he’s lying in a hammock. Even with the tarp underneath, the tent was a hassle considering that it would get wet from a bunch of their stuff anyways. So here they are, lying in a hammock together looking up at the leaves and sky and stars above them.

“I kind of wanted to use the hammock instead anyways,” Jongin admits. “So we could see this.”

Of course the stars are beautiful; there’s so many of them compared to what’s visible in the city, and the more you stare the more you can see. Jongdae likes watching Jongin gaze at the stars too, though. It’s too dark to see well, but Jongdae knows that Jongin’s eyes are hungrily taking in the view like a child at the window of a store and that he’s smiling without thinking about it. Inevitably, after a while Jongin turns to gaze at him too.

“Thank you,” Jongdae says, and he knows he doesn’t have to elaborate. Jongin presses a slow, soft kiss to Jongdae’s forehead in response.

Jongdae wouldn’t admit it out loud -- at least, not to anyone other than Jongin -- but he likes feeling small in Jongin’s arms like this, feeling warm and as if he’s in the safest place in the world. Jongin probably knows anyways from the way that Jongdae burrows himself into Jongin’s shoulder, making sure that Jongin’s arm is tightly wrapped around him. Even if a hammock doesn’t provide much back support and his head is kind of at an awkward angle, whatever physical discomfort he’ll feel doesn’t matter compared to how content and simply happy Jongdae feels now.

 

Jongdae wakes up when the birds start to chirp and the sky has started to turn lighter. Misty clouds have rolled in during the night and paint a grey haze that delays the real start of the morning. Jongin, never being one to rise early, sleeps on despite the increasing volume of the bird calls, and Jongdae takes a few moments to look at him: the faint shadows under his eyelashes; the little bump and curve of his nose; the slight gap between his lips as he breathes peacefully. Even if Jongdae can’t fall back asleep like that, he can let himself stay like this holding onto Jongin as they sway ever so slightly in the foggy air. When dawn comes, they will still be here, together.


End file.
